Without going out of my door, I can know all things on earth,
Without looking out of my window, I can know the ways of heaven:
The farther one travels, the less one knows, the less one really knows.

George Harrison, The Inner Light

I consoled myself this weekend with the idea that I was being productive while my friends were at Harrogate or Necon or whatnot. Except of course I wasn’t feeling especially productive as I struggled with an essay I regretted agreeing to do, especially while wondering how I could stretch a 1500 word section to 2K, then finally realising it was supposed to be only 1K. D’oh!

Like the man said: sometimes the magic works and sometimes, it doesn’t.

I’ve come to realise that there’s not much point in going to conferences unless I have something to do, and at the very least I need to have a good cadre of friends there, too. And I’m not especially good at putting myself forward, so there’s little chance that I would have got fantastic photos like these (thank you, Caitlin Sagan — you rock!):

So maybe it’s best to enjoy things vicariously since I just came back from EdgeLit, Byron is visiting this week and next week I’m off to Finland — and there’s a lot that needs to be done in between things. So I best get to work. After all, it’s the work what needs to get around.

I belatedly discover that Human Cuisine is now available as an ebook for $5.00. If you care to avail yourself, you’ll find some interesting essays including my “Grimma Gæst” about Beowulf and Grendel. Click the link below